


Assassins and Ashes

by tnnyoh



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: AU, Gen, Heavy Angst, High Chaos (Dishonored)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 12:28:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11783172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tnnyoh/pseuds/tnnyoh
Summary: Billie Lurk had one job, to kill the Outsider.  What she did instead caused a ripple effect through all possible times, throwing her and The Outsider back through time in a world where Emily Kaldwin's possession was never stopped, Dunwall is soon to be under siege, Without the royal protector in sight, without Daud, Billie has nobody to help her except the man she was supposed to kill.





	1. The Two Born of Shadows

One mistake, that's all it took. One mistake.  
  
I was supposed to kill The Outsider, but now.....  
  
The world around us has changed, Daud is gone, The Empress is gone, and her royal protector is gone.  Along the way something happened that made a mess of everything, and it was up to me, and my last target to fix it.   Dunwall has fallen, Emily Kaldwin is not Emily Kaldwin, but a living puppet for Delilah Copperspoon, the witch I once betrayed my own mentor for.  
  
Daud... I was responsible for all of this.  
  
The last thing I needed was to see him, but there he was. A constant reminder of what I failed to do.   He sat across from me on the dreadful whale, his eyes no longer pitch black, his skin no longer as pale as death.  
  
I pushed myself up off the chair in the mess hall, crossing over to the briefing board, it had all of the mission information for what we, me and Daud, had planned to do and now it was all for nothing.  
  
"You're going to drown in that bitterness, Billie" He quipped up, after hours of silence, hearing his voice was like nails scratching against metal  
"What is it to you?" I shot back at him "I was going to kill you... You were supposed to die"  
"And yet here I am, not dead and perhaps more alive than I have been in over four thousand years.  How did that come to be?"  
"Oh shut up," Billie said "I don't have time for the vague bullshit, you're not a god anymore, you don't have to pretend to know everything"  
This seemed to shut him up judging by the open-fish look on his face, I was pleased with myself.  
  
I started taking down the pictures, the articles, what was left of my last mission with Daud before everything got fucked up.  I glared at the Outsider "What do I call you now?" I asked, surprising myself a little bit  
I must have surprised him too because he stuttered "I...uh. I don't"  
"How about I just call you 'O.'" I said, not in the form of a question, he caught my tone and nodded  
"So what the hell are we supposed to do?" She asked, not particularly wanting an answer  
"I guess the best course of action would be to... try to get rid of Delilah," O. said  
I sighed "Delilah, she's been a thorn in my side for years and I am sick of hearing her name"  
O. nodded, "Imagine how I feel"  
"I'd rather not," I said, putting a hand up to silence him "I don't care what you have to say, this is a situation we're forced in. We don't have to be friends"  
O. stood and paced quietly, a blank canvas sitting near the back of the mess hall flickered in and out of existence, sometimes it was a painting of Delilah, and sometimes it was a painting of Emily.  Sokolov had painted both of them, but now... that is never going to happen.  
  
"Fine, we figure out how to take down Delilah, she's the Empress, more importantly, nobody knows she's The Empress... They aren't just going to let us kill Emily Kaldwin"  I said, pacing the floor "With Corvo sent off on the orders of Empress Copperspoon..."  
"We find him, we tell him what happened to his daughter"  
"And how the hell do you expect us to do that?"  
"We start simple" O. said "We arrange a meeting with Empress Copperspoon"  
I glared at him "What are you, Daft?"  
"We have no choice, we have to get inside Dunwall tower and find out where Delilah sent Corvo"  
I sighed heavily, it made sense, but I didn't want to admit it to him "Fine, but I'm in charge here"  
"Of course, because the last mission you were in charge of went so well. "  
I shot him a glare "Don't be funny, We have a lot of work to do."  
Do whatever it takes to get in Dunwall tower, another damn heist, I thought as I pinned a small photo to the briefing board, a snippet from the Dunwall Courier, "Emily Kaldwin's birthday celebration"  
"We might be able to use Emily's birthday as a means to get in" I offered, scanning the snippet for more details "But there's going to be a lot of guards, I hope you're good at sneaking"  
"I evaded you, didn't I?" He said, not a hint of a laugh in his face or throat, but I knew he was being funny again.  
"I hate you," I said simply "Just shut up, and let's get to work"  
  
   
  
  



	2. What Shall We Do With A Broken Whaler?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> O. And Lurk try to figure out their first move, and settle on infiltrating Emily Kaldwin (Delilah Copperspoon's) birthday party to get information on where Corvo Attano was shipped off to.

"What's your deal, anyway?" I asked O. as we sat in the mess hall, trying to figure out how to get into Kaldwin's birthday celebration  
"What are you referring to?" O. asked, not looking up from the notes spread out over the table  
"I mean, back in the day.. Brigmore witches, Delilah, Daud told me everything he was doing, and why he was doing it."   
"So?" O. asked, again without looking up  
"So why'd you stop Delilah?"  
"Why did I stop Delilah from taking the life and autonomy of a child who was only a few years younger than I was when my life was stolen from me?  Sure is a puzzle" O. Said, I almost felt a twinge of regret for even asking  
"I forgot," I said quickly, returning my eyes to my notes  
We sat in silence for a while, I decided I hated silence and I broke it with another question  
"Why can't we just take out Delilah when we get to the tower?"  
O. looked up from his notes for the first time, his eyes angry, I was still getting used to seeing him as a mortal and not a black eyed god. "Because we would also 'take out' Emily, which is not our mission, And I can't imagine how you can be so callous about this when not six months ago, you helped Emily."  
I rolled my eyes "Whatever, this isn't about Emily, it's about Delilah"  
"It's about both, Delilah holds Emily hostage in her body," O. said, pushing the papers aside and grabbing a new one to draw a rough image of Delilah, he wrote "Emily Kaldwin" on it   
My eyes widened "What?" I grabbed the drawing "Are you telling me that Emily is in Delilah's..."  
"Yes!" He hissed "When Daud couldn't stop the ritual, Emily's body was taken over by Delilah, she had meant for it to kill Emily, but it backfired"  
"Does she know?"  
"No, Delilah has no idea that Emily still exists in any form, but we do"  
"Then why the hell isn't our first mission to find Emily?"  
"Do you really think she's still in Dunwall?" O. asked "She's probably absolutely terrified of what's happened, she would have run"  
I nodded, I had forgotten that back in these days, Emily was just a little girl  
"So we find Corvo first, then what?"  
"We tell him about Emily, we tell him she's still out there somewhere"  
"I don't know why you didn't tell ME this, it's pretty important to our mission"   
O. stood and stuck his drawing to the briefing board "You didn't ask" He said with the slightest of smirks  
I grabbed the rolled up copy of the dunwall sitting on the table, I got up and smacked the back of his head with it  
"Let's get this show on the road, we're headed to Dunwall tower"  
"Not so fast" O. Said "We can't just walk in there looking like this" He indicated his out of date clothing, black long coat, scraggly looking pants and boots that likely had holes through them  
To be fair, I was no prize either, My clothes were in tatters, even though my arm and eye were set right and I no longer walked the streets looking like one of Kirin Jindosh's creations, I still looked a mess  
"You're right, we'll go to Drapers Ward first, get some new threads"  
"With?" O. asked   
"Money, I've got gold in the back"  
"Of course you do," O. said, shaking his head "Lead the way, Lurk"   
We stopped by the back room to grab the gold when I found a small stuffed animal, flickering in and out of existence  
"It's Emily's," I said  
"It's not important right now" O. Said, grabbing the stuffed animal and tossing it to the side "We focus on the mission"   
"Right," I said "Let's go, we'll take the skiff"


	3. Trouble on The Water, Said The Sailors Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> O. and Lurk set off for Drapers Ward in order to get disguises for the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I do plan on explaining how Delilah still has a mark, how Corvo still has his powers and how The Outsider doesn't exist in this alternate universe as The Outsider in future chapters :D
> 
> "Job's a job" - Booker DeWitt (Bioshock Infinite)

The trip on the skiff to Dunwall was one I'd taken before, but instead of Emily Kaldwin sitting across from me, this time it was the former void deity himself, a man without a name.   
We sat in silence, there was nothing to say anyway, he knew if he opened his mouth I wouldn't be happy, and I had nothing but anger, anything I could say would be laced with venom   
  
It was best to keep quiet, we had a mission to do.  
  
O. looked around the waters, the waves were still and the dull sun, hiding behind the clouds was barely reflecting off the mirror like sheen of the water. "Have you never been on a boat before?"  
I asked, almost in spite of myself, why should I care about any of this? Why should I try to make small talk?  
He shook his head "I've never seen a lot of the Empire"  
I nodded, I knew a lot more about The Outsider's origins than almost anyone in the empire did, in my attempt to kill him, I had to learn about what exactly he was, where he came from, though there was once a person he willingly divulged some of this information to.  
  
But she didn't exist the same way anymore.   
  
"How far are we from the shores?" O. asked after a while   
I looked out towards the water, no buildings were discernible against the sudden fog that started to roll in, the clouds thickening "I'd say we're close, there's a storm on the horizon, and where the storms are, the shores are"  O. Didn't respond to my calculations, instead he asked a question of his own "How do I know I can trust you?"   
"You don't, and you can't, but if you're asking what I think. No, I'm not going to shove you off the skiff and hope you drown" I said, staring at my fingernails, they were dirty.  Dunwall didn't have a damn good boutique anywhere, I had never been interested in being pampered, but we were going to a birthday party, it was best to look as presentable as possible.   
"Your death doesn't serve a purpose anymore" I added "You're a human"  
"You've killed humans before, Lurk," O. said, listlessly  
"Yeah, people who deserved it, you as a human, haven't done anything to piss me off enough"  
O. chuckled slightly, It might have been nice if Lurk didn't feel like actually throwing him out of the skiff  
"We got a problem," I said suddenly"Delilah knows what I look like, she's seen me"  
"Yeah?" O. said "Delilah knows what I look like too, we'll figure out disguises when we get to drapers"  
I eyed him "Already shortening place names? You'll do fine as a mortal"   
"Is it just my imagination or are you being more pleasant than you were when we got here?" O. asked  
"Job's a job," I said  
"Not an answer," O. said quietly, looking out as Dunwall became visible against the dense fog  
"Not everything deserves an answer, and in any case, we're here." I stopped the engine of the skiff as we drew closer to the docks "Follow me, I know the quickest way to Drapers, we won't have to use the long streets"  
He followed me as I stepped out of the skiff, looking a little more green than usual "You weren't kidding about not being on a boat before" I shook my head "Just don't throw up on me"  
  
We headed for Draper's Ward, and for some new outfits, We would have to pick very good disguises if we were going to get into Delilah's tower without her recognizing who we were.  
  



End file.
